All the way through history, recycling has existed in some way or another. Even as long ago as 400 BC indications of early recycling are known to have happened. Archaeological studies show that ancient waste dumps contained less of what’s known nowadays as household waste, like pots, utensils and ash, which shows that people were, even in those days, keen to reuse materials at a time when natural resources weren’t so freely available. Little did they know that what they were starting would play such a huge role in shaping the world for future generations
Indeed it could be argued that the old ‘rag-and-bone’ man was just an early recycler collectingdiscarded goods on his horse and cart, before reusing or converting the recovered items into new stuff.
During periods such as the World War Years, recycling and re-use were necessary as natural materials became considerably more difficult to find. As well as food being rationed, certain materials such as metal and fibre were largely allowed just for use by the government to support military operations, to fulfill manufacturing requirements often in the production of weaponry.
Due to rising energy costs, the need to recycle aluminium increased in the 1970’s.. As a material aluminium uses a lesser amount of energy in the production process than some other materials. Plus it was much prized because of its non rusting properties. The demand for aluminium saw the rise of scrap metal merchants who were prepared to pay money in return for good quality metal. In addition, in the seventies in parts of the USA, the first trucks were seen to be collecting waste with a separate trailer for the gathering of recyclable items being towed behind the vehicle.
Into the late eighties, early 1990’s and as the importance of managing the intercontinental environmental state heightened amongst worldwide governing bodies, the attention upon recycling really started to get momentum. In the UK, the government imposed recycling targets upon Local Authorities and with the introduction of the fresh legislation upon the waste industry, recycling initiatives really began to take off. The once commonly recognised waste disposal corporations, began to call themselves waste management companies and demonstrated with the offer of waste collection and recyclable material collection that waste needed to be handled more efficiently.
Nowadays, many hundreds of materials and resources may be recycled, starting from paper, card, glass and plastics, to mobile phone handsets, electrical items, printer cartridges, textiles, clothing and concrete.
What Exactly is Recycling?
The word recycling identifies the process of reprocessing second hand products into new or nearly new products and avoid the need for potentially useable materials or products to be discarded. Essentially it is diverting waste materials away from landfill.
Recycling plays a vital role in a world where climate change is high on the green agenda. It helps to reduce the need to unnecessarily send waste material and products to landfill or other waste disposal options. Consequently this diminishes the demand or the reliance upon consuming fresh or new natural materials, reduces energy use and air and water pollution, all of which contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling would probably be most evident through the recycling services now provided by local councils for domestic refuse and recycling collections and by innovative waste management firms who typically provide a full range of waste and recycling collection services.
One of the premier British specialists in waste products management is Biffa Waste Ltd, it is easy to visit their website to get more detailed information on all aspects of waste and contaminated waste management.
In the waste material sector, the common promotional activity is all around the waste hierarchy – ‘reduce, reuse, recycle and recover’. This 4 R slogan is a basic message devised for a far reaching crowd. Consider how you can reduce your waste. Could the waste materials products or materials be reused? Can the waste product or material be recycled or recovered?
The waste hierarchy is usually a strategy that various waste management companies and local authorities look at when establishing new waste management approaches. The system is designed to concentrate the thought process around preventing waste being generated to start with. Think about the options for reuse and recycling but ultimately minimise the amount of waste produced at the end of the cycle. The slogan has been adopted particularly well in the public sector.
And so the focus is very much on the entire manufacturing process. The waste material hierarchy extends much wider than to waste materials management businesses and local bodies. Working groups have been established to bring many industries together to look at the whole waste cycle. By way of example, the manufacturer of a product must take into account the way the product will be manufactured. Can components be used that can eventually be recycled or reused? Can the volume of packaging that surrounds the product be reduced? When the product gets to the shop, is it essential for the product to be left inside an outer package? If the retailer sells the merchandise, what will the purchaser do with the excess components of the acquisition, i.e. the packaging? How will the packaging be handled and where will it go? Does it return to a recycling facility, for onward shipment to a reprocessing facility, in which the cycle begins again? The process must be simple to manage and implement.
How are Materials Collected for Recycling?
Legislation now dictates that all waste material must be treated to avoid the volume of recyclables and unnecessary waste heading direct to landfill. Since 1996, the UK government has enforced a landfill tax on all waste material dumped within landfill. The rate of duty has increased considerably in recent years rising from the original level of £8 per ton, to today’s rate of £40 per ton. The UK government has previously announced that this will increase further to £48 per ton from the end of 2010/11. This cost applies to all general waste materials streams, although there exists a reduced rate for inert products. Delivering waste materials directly to landfill is an expensive course of action and selecting suitable processes to divert waste away from landfill has become a priority. For inert materials the rate is £2.50 per ton.
So, the message to everyone is clear, sort your waste material to scale back the volume of waste going to landfill. Traditionally, at home or at the office, as soon as you place waste materials in the bin , it is forgotten about. Somebody else will collect it and take it away. Today, at home and at your workplace, recycling is being stimulated by the provision of bins in which to place certain recyclable materials.
Some common products to be seen being recovered for recycling are paper, card, glass, metals and plastics. However the possiblity to recycle a large amount of materials or products continues to grow.
There is a large range of recycling receptacles might be located at high usage points for instance close to photocopying machines to get leftover papers.
The systems of collecting materials or waste materials to be recycled is also escalating and becoming more visible within local communities. Specialist collection sites, often referred to as bring bank sites, are cropping up in supermarket car parks to inspire customers of the superstore to return such items as bottles, newspapers or cardboard to the bins on their way into the supermarket. Shoppers are therefore encouraged to bring back their recyclables.
Local Authority waste materials collection crews or their appointed contractors will collect refuse and recyclables from the roadside normally in front of your property. Collection from household premises typically remains the responsibility of the local authorities and several have employed the provision of bags in which to gather specific recyclable materials or products. The services do vary from council to council.
In the business and commercial field, waste management contractors offer different containers where the customer deposits the applicable waste stream or recyclable resources ready for collection. The containers will usually be clearly labeled as to which recyclable materials need to be put inside that container or bin. Alternatively, the bins will probably be colour coded to distinguish which recyclable wastes need to be placed within which bins.
The key to a successful recycling initiative is residents about what can be recycled and how. In the commercial world getting the co-operation of office employees is crucial. The introduction of any recycling scheme must ensure that in asking employees to separate waste for recycling, it does not become time consuming and affect the effectiveness of what employees should be doing in their work.
The Recycling Process
Numerous collection solutions exist for the collection of the recyclable material . Regardless of what collection method is used , the materials are taken to a drop off point where they’ll be segregated from other waste products.
To begin the recycling process from a collection viewpoint, the more recyclable material which can be separated at origin, i.e. at home or in the workplace, the more efficient it will be for the waste collector. For this reason individual storage units are provided to the waste producer to stimulate segregation at source. If card could be collected using a vehicle, that will collect no other waste material, the card will be kept clean and for that reason will have an improved value when it gets to the processing plant. In the same way, dedicated glass collection vehicles are employed to collect only glass. In addition to the obvious health and safety reasons and the weight of collected glass, it’ll have a greater value if the collected glass load is not contaminated with other waste materials. Uncontaminated recyclables will have a much higher value than contaminated materials.
When collected, the recyclable materials can be taken direct to the reprocessing plant, if the load contains only that specific type of material. So a dedicated glass collection truck could take the load on to a glass processing plant.
If blended recyclables have been collected like paper and card within the same container, it might be necessary for the collector to take the load to a materials recycling facility to unload and allow the load to be sorted into individual paper and card bundles for onward transport to a paper or card processing plant. Whichever technique is used, the recyclable material gathered will often be sorted or cleaned before proceeding through to a reprocessing facility to be processed to a new resource and ultimately used as a new product or in manufacturing.
Because of high density populations, the matter of waste disposal calls for more clever solutions than the old landfill ideas. power in waste is just the kind of solution, turning waste material into electricity.
The Increasing Significance of Recycling
In the UK around 35% of waste materials collected from households is recycled or composted. While within the business and industrial area, the volume of waste materials delivered to landfill has dropped significantly recently plus the amount of waste material now being diverted for recycling or reuse by this market has increased over the amounts going to landfill.
Landfill continues to play a key role in the management of waste across the UK as not all waste products are able to be recycled plus some are more suited to landfill disposal than by some other method. However, it is not just the increasing costs of getting rid of waste directly in landfill which is making recycling a far more attractive option for corporations. Landfill is becoming scarce, with many authorities suggesting that the volume of space available across all UK landfill sites, has less than 10 years existence left before all sites are considered to be full.
In the past few years, waste material management firms have had to change their focal point, and begin to take into consideration and put money into new technologies, such as energy from waste facilities, anaerobic digestion plants and mechanical biological treatment plants, as alternate options to landfill. Local Authorities have adapted their attitudes by commencing comprehensive strategic reviews as to how waste under their jurisdiction should be handled. In some instances this has meant that unitary authorities are progressing plans to bring in long term deals, usually around 25 years in length, through which to control their entire waste management needs. These agreements will often include the need to develop a facility through which to handle all waste produced across the city by segregating all waste material streams. The agreements might also incorporate the collection of all waste and recyclables from homes across the region. So the issue of waste management is beginning to change rapidly. The times of merely throwing everything in the dustbin have vanished and the development of new technologies are upon us. The introduction of new technologies will play a huge role in the future of waste management.
Summary
Recycling is now a lifestyle and is maturing all the time. It has evolved through the years from something that was undertaken with no real thought behind it. The trusty rag and bone man was just attempting to make a living. Today, many blue chip firms are setting out plans for a ‘zero to landfill’ waste policy, where the objective is very straightforward – reduce waste, reuse waste and recycle waste, but no waste must end up in landfill. Some companies have announced ambitious target dates by which to achieve such plans.
Many properties across the country now have some form of bin in which to divide waste materials for recycling. The need to separate newspapers, aluminium cans and plastic bottles are almost the norm. Whilst in industrial and business sectors, there is an increasing selection of items to think about for recycling like printer cartridges, office paper, metal and electrical equipment.
Ideally the whole process would be a complete cycle such as it was in the time of the horse. However the advent of new technologies will accelerate further the way in which our waste is to be managed in the future, but it is highly improbable that we will ever reach the ultimate waste free society. There will always be a need for waste to be disposed of somewhere, somehow.
